head to head · open source
Tuta vs helm-secrets
Tuta has 7,925 GitHub stars, 639 forks, 1,001 open issues and last shipped yesterday. helm-secrets has 2,029 stars, 154 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Tuta leads on adoption by 291% (7,925 vs 2,029 stars). Tuta is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; helm-secrets is written in Shell under Apache-2.0. Tuta has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, helm-secrets 8%. Tuta was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (encryption), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Tuta | helm-secrets | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.9K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 639 | ⑂ 154 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Tuta if
- You weight community size — 7.9K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick helm-secrets if
- You want the helm-secrets feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and helm-secrets fits your workflow better
About Tuta
Tuta is an open source, end to end encrypted email, calendar and contacts service for individuals and teams who need private communication to work across every device they own.
About helm-secrets
helm secrets is a Helm plugin that decrypts encrypted Helm value files on the fly, built for teams that keep Kubernetes secrets in Git or a cloud native secret manager and deploy charts with Helm or a GitOps operator such as ArgoCD.
read the full helm-secrets overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tuta or helm-secrets more popular?
Tuta has 7,925 GitHub stars and helm-secrets has 2,029. Tuta has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tuta and helm-secrets free?
Both are open source. Tuta is licensed under GPL-3.0 and helm-secrets under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tuta and helm-secrets?
Tuta is written in TypeScript and helm-secrets in Shell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Tuta or helm-secrets?
Choose Tuta if you want the larger community (7,925 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose helm-secrets if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.